New changes and syllabus for IAS examination

Guide For Civil Services Examination

The Civil Services examination is undergoing a thorough overhaul with more emphasis on general studies and the dropping of the second optional subject. The changes will make it more a test of originality and skill than mere subject knowledge. The new changes are meant to attract candidates who have a thorough awareness of the various problems the country is grappling with.

New Scheme and Syllabus of Civil Services

The Civil Service Examination conducted in three different stages is used to recruit young graduates into the highest civil positions available in the country including many senior positions under various state government and departments and agencies of Government of India. The senior most Civil  echelons are recruited through this examination including that of Cabinet Secretary.

   Officers of the three important constitutional All India Services  (AIS). Indian Administrative Services, Indian  Police Service and Indian Foreign Service and the Diplomatic Service (IFS) are selected through this common examination which usually spreads over about 18 months. the examination, which is open to all candidates holding a graduate degree approved by the University Grants Commission (UGC) or equivalent qualification, attracts about 3-4 lakhs of applications per year and about 2 lakh serious competitors at the first stage of competition, now known as the Civil service Aptitude Test (CSAT).

     The Union Public Services Commission selects about 10-12 times the total number of vacancies of the year for competing in the main written stage of the examination and about twice to thrice the number of vacancies in the personality test. A merit list is produced based on the aggregate scores achieved by the candidates in those competitive subjects in the main examination and the personality test (interview) taken together. Only 2 out of 1,000 applicants figure in the final merit list and candidates need to be in the first 300 ranks to be allocated their services of first or second choice. In terms of the number of applicants and the intensity of competition, the examination is possibly unmatched in the entire world. Apart from banking, private sector management and teaching professions, the Civil Services offers best general opportunities for employment in the job market in India.

     Since 2011, the Union Public Service Commission has been making various changes to the pattern of the examination to reduce its predictability and increase its competitiveness. These changes are notified for the present year in UPSC's notifications dated 05-05-2013 and 26-05-2013 available in the UPSC website i.e., www.upsc.gov.in.

     The changes introduced in the preliminary stages of the examination have been implemented since 2011. The first change has been to replace the subject based optional paper in the preliminary examination with a general paper making CSAT an examination of marks (200 marks each in two papers) conducted on the same day across India. The subject content of the two papers is provided hereafter.
                                                                                                                                                    by
                                                                                                                                                Dr.B.Ashok


Important Links :
This part will give you basic information of CSAT, Syllabus and Preparation plan.

• Changes in the civil services main examination:

• Click Here For Preliminary examination (CSAT) Details:

• Click Here For Personality Test Details:

• General Tips for Civil Services Aspirants:

Preparation plan for Preliminary Examination (CSAT)

Preliminary Examination (CSAT)

The examination shall comprise two compulsory papers of 200 marks each.

Paper-I (200 marks) Duration: 2(two) hours 

• Current Events of National and International Importance.
• History of India and Indian National Movement.
• Indian and World Geography-Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World.
• Indian Polity and Governance- Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues.
• Economic and Social Development, Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.
• General issues on Environmental Ecology, Biodiversity and Climate Changes that do not require subject specialization.
• General Science.

Paper-II (200 marks) Duration: 2(two) hours

• Comprehension.
• Interpersonal skills including communication skills.
• Logical reasoning and analytical ability.
• Decision-making and problem-solving.
• General mental ability.
• Basic numeracy (Numbers and their relations, Orders of magnitude, etc.) (Class Xth Level), Data Interpretation (Charts, Graphs, Tables, Data Sufficiency, etc.) (Class Xth Level)

Note-1: Question relating to English Language comprehension skills of class Xth level ( Last item in the syllabus of paper II) will be tested through passages from English Language only without providing Hindi translation thereof in the question paper.

Note-2: The question marking on all questions answered at the rate of 1/3rd of the mark allotted otherwise for the question. As most students are generally very well versed with the idea of negative marking, we need not elaborate it here.

      The questions in the CSAT are of multiple choice type and candidates are only required to select an appropriate answer from the options given in the question paper itself. As this format of testing is extremely common, this need not be elaborated here. It may be noted that Paper-II has more marks per question and hence poor showing in this paper could affect the candidate's prospects more.

     The multiple choice question type does not give you any freedom to blindly guess answers as wrong answers carry a minus mark equivalent to 1/3rd of the mark provided for the right  answer to the same question. The change of supplanting the optional subject paper in the preliminary stage has been done deliberately to introduce a highly competitive comprehension section, testing communication skill, logical reasoning, analytical ability, general mental ability and numerical ability of the candidate, in addition to history, current affairs, general science which are tested in paper I. The CSAT is a highly competitive screening test and mere graduation is not sufficient to clear it.

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Important Links:

• Changes and syllabus for IAS (Civil Services):
• Guide for Civil Services Examination: